Chameleon comedian Chris Lilley and his best TV characters

AS chameleon actor and comedian, Chris Lilley’s new series has hits our screens. So we have revisited five of his most-loved characters.

CHRIS Lilley burst onto our radar with his acclaimed mockumentary comedy We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian of the Year, showing he wasn’t afraid to take risks or new directions.

The actor, comedian, producer and writer is at it again with his new series, Jonah From Tonga, embracing the binge-viewing concept of television.

The entire series went up on ABC’s iView and can be viewed online until 6pm Sunday night in a first for the ABC.

Lilley’s team says it’s a way of putting fans first. The network says it’s a thrilling innovation. Cynics suggest it’s a handy way of circumventing lukewarm reviews after a mixed reception for Lilley’s Ja’mie: Private School Girl, last year.

Whatever the case, it gives us time, ahead of the on-air launch of the series on Wednesday night, to reflect on the characters we’ve loved for every deluded character wrinkle they display. Because we all know someone like them. Heck, they might even be us.

JONAH TAKALUA

HE’s the focus of Lilley’s new series, but can a teenage Tongan with attitude rate for six episodes? In 2007 in Summer Heights High, parents grimaced as Jonah’s catch-cry: “Puck you, Miss”, bounced off TV screens and straight into the schoolyard. A break-dancer who can talk the talk, but can’t quite bust the moves, Jonah makes us simultaneously uncomfortable, angry and protective. He’s offensive, aggressive, and the bluster and bravado masks a vulnerability that makes us ache for him and his struggles with racism, at home, and in the school system. And then there’s the fact that his delinquent ways are just hilarious.

CHRIS LILLEY: Jonah is fun to play

Classic Lilley humour ... Chris Lilley stars in his own show as Jonah.

JA’MIE KING

WE first met the self-obsessed, spoiled teen in We Can Be Heroes. She scandalised us in Summer Heights High. For some, Ja’mie: Private School Girl was just too much mean girl wrapped up in one series. But she strikes a chord with teens familiar with the conventions of ‘fake-nice’, strange ‘faccents’ (faux accents) and manipulating parents. Lilley has used her to devastating effect to shine a line on racism, homophobia, snobbery, her bad body image and bundle of insecurities. Parents’ biggest concern is their teens miss the irony, and just think she’s ‘quiche’ (Ja’mie-speak for ‘hot’).

Slack and mean .... Chris Lilley as Ja'mie King.

RUTH ‘GRAN’ SIMS

WE initially recoiled at the casually crass racism of the elderly lesbian juvenile detention worker in Lilley’s 2011 Angry Boys, as she separated inmates into teams of ‘light-skinned and dark-skinned’. We softened as we found beneath the rude, tough love exterior lurked a woman who made superhero pyjamas for those same inmates. We’d hate her afresh for her game ‘gotcha’, as she tricked her charges into believing they’d be released. Then our hearts broke for her — first with the death of her favourite guinea pig, Kerri-Anne — then when Alzheimer’s forced her retirement.

Old favourite ... Chris Lilley as Ruth 'Gran' Sims.

MR G

HOW furious would Mr G be that Lilley hasn’t given him his own series? Mr G was a fixture of Lilley’s first TV series, Big Bite, but it was in Summer Heights High that he stole the show. The effeminate drama teacher is a celebration of total delusion mixed with hideously bitchy. He’s drama, with a capital G, jazz hands, and a Broadway flourish. His masquerade mask — if he ever allowed it to drop — would reveal his deep, deep insecurities.

Bad teacher .... Chris Lilley as Mr G in Summer Heights High.

PAT MULLINS

PAT aka the Rolling Woman of We Can Be Heroes was as eccentric and ridiculous as it she was disarmingly hilarious. A skeletal problem which left one leg shorter than the other meant Pat was skilled at rolling along the ground at speed. Backed by hubby Terry, who built her a training course to roll on; her ambition was to roll from Perth to Uluru. Lilley’s last-episode masterstroke of killing her off, left us silenced, the laughs stuck in our throats.

So funny but so wrong ... Chris Lilley as Pat Mullins (right) with her husband Terry.

JONAH FROM TONGA

WEDNESDAY (MAY 7) 9PM, ABC1

Originally published as Chameleon comedian Chris Lilley and his best TV characters